Big Paris art heist: Works by Pablo Picasso and Henri Matisse stolen

Paris art heist: Five paintings, including works by Pablo Picasso and Henri Matisse, were stolen overnight from a Paris museum by a lone masked thief.

By
Associated Press /
May 20, 2010

Paris art heist: This June 30, 2006 photo shows an employee at the Cantini museum in Marseille, southwestern France, looking at the painting "L'Olivier prés de l'Estaque" (L) (The Olive tree near l'Estaque) by French painter Georges Braque during the exhibition "Braque and landscape, from l'Estaque to Varengeville". Five works including paintings by modern masters Henri Matisse and Pablo Picasso and "L'Olivier prés de l'Estaque" (L), have been stolen from a Paris-run Musee d'Art Moderne.

A lone thief stole five paintings possibly worth hundreds of millions of euros, including major works by Picasso and Matisse, in a brazen overnight heist at a Paris modern art museum, police and prosecutors said Thursday.

Investigators are trying to determine whether the intruder was operating alone, Girard told reporters. He said three guards were on duty overnight but "they saw nothing."

The intruder entered by cutting a padlock on a gate and breaking a museum window, the Paris prosecutor's office said.

The prosecutor's office initially estimated the five paintings' total worth at as much as €500 million ($613 million).

Girard, however, said the total value was "just under 100 million euros."

He said "Le pigeon aux petits-pois" (The Pigeon with the Peas) an ochre and brown Cubist oil painting by Pablo Picasso, was worth an estimated €23 million, and "La Pastorale" (Pastoral), an oil painting of nudes on a hillside by Henri Matisse about €15 million.

The other paintings stolen were "L'olivier pres de l'Estaque" (Olive Tree near Estaque) by Georges Braque; "La femme a l'eventail" (Woman with a Fan) by Amedeo Modigliani; and "Nature-mort aux chandeliers" (Still Life with Chandeliers) by Fernand Leger.

Alice Farren-Bradley of the Art Loss Registry in London said the Paris theft "appears to be one of the biggest" art heists ever, considering the estimated value, the prominence of the artists and the high profile of the museum.

She added, however, that the value of the paintings would have to be confirmed, as museums and art dealers often value paintings differently.

Interpol did not immediately respond to calls seeking comment on the theft or its possible role in the investigation. The police organization has coordinated international searches for stolen masterpieces in the past.

Red-and-white tape surrounded the museum, where investigators were studying surveillance video. Paper signs on the museum doors said it was closed for technical reasons.

On a cordoned-off balcony behind the museum, police in blue gloves and face masks examined the broken window and empty frames. The paintings appeared to have been carefully removed from the disassembled frames, not sliced out.

A security guard at the museum said the paintings were discovered missing by a night watchman just before 7 a.m. (0500 GMT, 1 a.m. Thursday EDT). The guard was not authorized to be publicly named because of the museum policy.

Paris Mayor Bertrand Delanoe said in a statement that he was "saddened and shocked by this theft, which is an intolerable attack on Paris' universal cultural heritage."

The director of the neighboring modern art museum Palais de Tokyo, Pierre Cornette de Saint-Cyr, called the thief or thieves "fools."

"You cannot do anything with these paintings. All countries in the world are aware, and no collector is stupid enough to buy a painting that, one, he can't show to other collectors, and two, risks sending him to prison," he said on LCI television.

"In general, you find these paintings," he said. "These five paintings are un-sellable, so thieves, sirs, you are imbeciles, now return them."